1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to holders for holding a rotating member, and more particularly to reel holders for use in tape winding apparatus. More specifically, the present invention is concerned with pancake reel holders for use in tape winding apparatus of a type which winds a longer tape as wrapped around a pancake reel into video cassettes or the like.
2. Description of Related Applications
The present invention has relation to both U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/957,473 filed on Oct. 7, 1992 by the same applicant and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/038,675 filed on Mar. 26, 1993 by the same applicant. The former U.S. application is based on Japanese Patent Application 260386/1991 (filed Oct. 8, 1991), Japanese Patent Application 285072/1991 (filed Oct. 30, 1991) and Japanese Patent Application 302033/1991 (filed Nov. 18, 1991) claiming the priority of the same, while the latter U.S. application is based on Japanese Patent Application 80074/1992 (filed Apr. 1, 1992) and Japanese Patent Application 80072/1992 (filed Apr. 1, 1992) claiming the priority of the same.
In order to clarify the task of the present invention, a reel holder described in the above-mentioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/957,473 will be outlined with reference to FIG. 7 of the accompanying drawings prior to making a detailed description on the present invention.
In FIG. 7, the reel holder 300 is shown as carrying thereon a reel hub 124. Although not shown in the drawing, a longer tape is to be wound around the reel hub 124 to constitute a so-called "pancake reel" (120, see FIG. 8).
In the drawing (FIG. 7), the reel holder 300 generally comprises a reel base 122 which is a part of a tape winding apparatus (not shown) and rotated about its axis. The reel hub 124 is detachably put on the reel base 122 through three pawl members 115 which are incorporated with a knob 113. The three pawls 115 can be radially expanded and contracted in response to rotation of the knob 113. That is, when the knob 113 is turned in the direction of the arrow "R", the pawls 115 are expanded to grasp the reel hub 124. With this, the reel hub 124 is held by the reel base 122. While, when the knob 113 is turned in the direction of the arrow "L", the pawls 115 are contracted to release the reel hub 124. With this, the reel hub 124 can be removed from the reel base 122.
Although not shown in the drawing, the reel hub 124 has at a cylindrical inner wall of the center bore thereof an axially extending groove, and the reel base 122 is formed with a corresponding projection. Upon proper fitting of the reel hub 124 onto the reel base 122, the groove and the projection are mated to prevent relative rotation therebetween. Thus, under his condition, the reel hub 124 and the reel holder 300 can rotate like a single unit.
FIG. 8 shows a tape winding apparatus to which the above-mentioned reel holder is practically applied. The tape winding apparatus is described in the above-mentioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/038,675.
As shown in the drawing, the tape winding apparatus 400 comprises generally a pancake reel autochanger 110, a second splicing device 130, a tape terminal end processing device 136, a tape front end withdrawing device 150, a first splicing device 170, a tape withdrawing and winding device 180 and a cassette loading device 190.
As shown, the reel base 122 on which the reel hub 124 as the pancake reel 120 is disposed is a part of the tape winding apparatus 400. The detail of the tape winding apparatus 400 is described in the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/038,657.